Category: low-footprint living

Earlier today when I was sitting enjoying the sound of the rain, just being in the moment, I started feeling guilty for doing nothing. This is a very common thing for me, since I love to sit and do nothing except enjoy the state of being, but then I feel guilty about doing nothing. LOL.

But today I was able to get out of the guilt by asking myself if anything needed doing. The answer was no. So, I will carry-on enjoying this beingness here now.

(And, really, being in the moment is NOT “doing nothing,” actually! It’s very much doing something!)

On a related note … One of my current reads in progress is REST IS RESISTANCE: A MANIFESTO, by Tricia Hersey. Founder of The Nap Ministry. Beautiful, powerful, deep book.

I sympathize with people who are sick of dealing with restrictions on trying to live a sustainable life.

Also, Mexico is beautiful. The land, and the culture.

That said …

It’s actually not that hard in the United States to use composting toilets and so on. yes, a person may have to be hooked up to utilities, but nothing prevents us from minimizing our electricity use, minimizing our city water use, and so on. Some of us live almost off the grid in cities. Even while being hooked up to the systems, we are able to keep our dependence on them to an absolute minimum by minimizing our consumption.

I give lots of tips on this in my book, and on this blog over the years. And on my social media platforms.

Some people think that collecting rainwater is illegal but that is mostly not the case in most places.

Regarding moving to other countries in search of an “easier” life (be it freedom from restrictions, lower cost of living or what have you) …

I think a big part of our work as permaculturists, degrowthers, and other assorted categories of earth guardians is to work to dismantle the capitalist systems that are putting restrictions on living a sustainable life. And yes, I realize that people have varying degrees of willingness to engage this work. I myself was not even willing to voluntarily talk to anyone from the government until relatively recently in my life, let alone actually go to meetings and try to engage with city & county government officials.

But, the systems are impeding degrowth. So as many people as are willing to stick around and try to do this work, the more the better.

I’ve always found it strange that USA Americans can just up and move to Mexico (and other Latin American countries), while many Mexican citizens are in terrible circumstances that push them to flee their homeland and come to the USA. I wonder how it is that we have the privilege to do this thing, while the people whose homeland it is do not have the safety and stability they need.

Also, I’ll repeat what I’ve heard people point out on other platforms. It’s funny how white people from the USA can just up and move to someone else’s country and have an anchor baby and it’s considered OK. Whereas when brown people from outside the USA come to the USA and have an anchor baby, people are up in arms about the “border crisis.”

USA culture has put constraints on resources and indigenous cultures throughout the world. I don’t think it’s OK for us to just escape it and go move to other countries. As long as the endless growth and consumerism exists, no corner of the world is really safe.

So I hope lots of people in the USA and other capitalist-dominant nations will engage their local government in, for example, removing restrictions to raising chickens in backyards. And removing restrictions to having native plant gardens in yards. And removing minimum size limits on houses. And so on and so on. I think a lot of the leverage points are at the level of local government.

PS. This is really important for anyone who thinks that rainwater collection is illegal. Check out Brad Lancaster’s books and website. “Rainwater harvesting for drylands.” This is information we all need to use and share, no matter what climate we live in.

Later: Someone accused me of being racist for saying this stuff. But it’s not racist to point out white colonizer behavior patterns.

(One of my recent Facebook posts aimed at cross-pollinating movements; feel free to use this and adapt as you need.)

“What Is the Riot for Austerity?”

The Riot for Austerity is a grassroots group of people who aim to reduce their lifestyle footprint by 90% of the USA average resident’s.

The term “Riot for Austerity” was inspired by George Monbiot’s book HEAT.  Monbiot points out in his book that no one ever riots for austerity. But that radical reduction is exactly what we need. (Monbiot’s recommendations are focused on the government policy level of things. The grassroots Riot movement arose from some everyday people’s desire to translate this onto a personal level.) 

The Riot for Austerity grassroots movement started I believe around 2007. It was started by two women in the sustainability blogosphere. One is Sharon Astyk, author of numerous excellent books on sustainable living & community. The other is Miranda Pollock, and I don’t know anything about her other than that she is a Mom (as is Sharon).

The Riot for Austerity guidelines call for us in the rich industrialized nations to decrease our consumption by 90% of the average USA resident’s level. (By the way, the Riot movement is also known as the 90% Reduction Challenge.)

Consumption is categorized into seven basic areas: gasoline/transportation, water, electricity, home heating/cooking fuel, amount of household trash generated, amount $ of consumer products purchased, and food footprint.

I didn’t know the word “Degrowth” back when I first started following the Riot, but it turns out the Riot rules are a pretty handy metric for a degrowth-compatible lifestyle.

Here are screenshots of the “Riot Rules” file from the Riot for Austerity group. If I find a way to copy-paste the text I will do so here also.

(I am also tagging the group so people will know where it is on Facebook.)

In my book, and elsewhere on this blog, I have commented on Derrick Jensen’s well-known piece “Forget Shorter Showers: Why Personal Change Does Not Equal Political Change.”

When I first read that article, some years ago, it came across to me as saying that there’s no point in making any personal change. I later realized that wasn’t what he was saying. But I still think he underplays the importance of personal everyday choices. And I have observed many of my fellow environmentalist falling into the same thinking.

When I hear Jensen and many other climate-aware people saying that our personal choices are just a drop in the bucket, I always feel that they are overlooking or at least radically underestimating, the “beneficial contagion” factor that our personal everyday choices can have. We do influence the people around us, to a degree that goes beyond the mere simple math of our reduction in water use, electricity use, and so on.

There’s also the basic simple truth that we can’t expect government and corporations to change the entire structure of systems, while consumer demand continues to push them in the opposite direction.

That is not to say that personal changes are any substitute for activism. We all need to be activists however we can.

A fellow member of the Degrowth group brought up Jensen’s article the other day, and shared the following quote from the article. (I’ve shared the link to the full article for you at the end of this post):

“Would any sane person think dumpster diving would have stopped Hitler, or that composting would have ended slavery or brought about the eight-hour workday, or that chopping wood and carrying water would have gotten people out of Tsarist prisons, or that dancing naked around a fire would have helped put in place the Voting Rights Act of 1957 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Then why now, with all the world at stake, do so many people retreat into these entirely personal “solutions”?

“The good news is that there are other options. We can follow the examples of brave activists who lived through the difficult times I mentioned–Nazi Germany, Tsarist Russia, antebellum United States–who did far more than manifest a form of moral purity; they actively opposed the injustices that surrounded them. We can follow the example of those who remembered that the role of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power with as much integrity as possible, but rather to confront and take down those systems.

“I want to be clear. I’m not saying we shouldn’t live simply. I live reasonably simply myself, but I don’t pretend that not buying much (or not driving much, or not having kids) is a powerful political act, or that it’s deeply revolutionary. It’s not. Personal change doesn’t equal social change.”

I responded:

For sure the above is true. That said:
What collecting rainwater, and radically reducing one’s energy consumption, and doing without a car if possible, and minimizing housing cost and footprint etc etc etc, can do Is help us get out from under the system that we’re trying to change.

And if we are less vulnerable to the systems, have less to lose, then we are more able to be outspoken and try to change the systems.

People who can’t afford to speak against the system, people who are stuck in the system, are the ones that we are trying to help.

Also, a personal sense of peace is very helpful in activism. I’m talking about genuine personal peace, not spiritual bypassing.

Also, although my tiny individual actions don’t add up to much, the fact is that personal practices can be very contagious. And that kind of contagion can be an onramp for social trends, which can definitely lead to massive change.

Additional thoughts:

Another important thing is that when we are fully living our values, or as close to it as we are able to manage in the current system, we get a certain power. Maybe a good phrase for it would be moral influence.

The climate deniers, ultra-far-right nationalists, etc., are very often living by their stated values and in accordance with their stated beliefs.

Meanwhile, many of us who call ourselves environmentalist, Degrowthers, Permaculturists, etc. are falling very far short of our stated beliefs and values.

We claim to believe that climate change is an extremely urgent matter. Ditto ecosystems restoration. And social justice … etc.

And yet: So many “eco” people continue to jetset all over the planet (including my personal favorite, flying to climate conferences, flying to permaculture classes and nature festivals in exotic overseas locations and that kind of thing). Constantly fly across continents & oceans to visit their families (rather than, say, move to be near their families), hoard land & extra houses, continue to keep their money on Wall Street, etc.

And there’s a certain unease that goes with not really living up to our values because we’re afraid of the consequences. And that unease gets transmitted, I think. It makes us less influential.

It starts to make sense that the environmental movement is not as persuasive as it could be. We are more persuasive when we are living more closely in tune with what we claim to believe.

In everyday life, it’s extremely hard to be fully in integrity with environmental beliefs. I am constantly feeling guilty about the amount of plastic packaging I end up accepting. And industrial factory food when it’s very hard to get ethically raised local food etc. etc. And buying consumer products that end up not being the best use of my money even though I thought they were going to be useful.

Each of us has some areas of consumption that we probably find easier to cut than other areas, and other aspects that we find harder. Obviously people living in cities will find it easier to do without a car, for example. Or share a car.

But there’s a lot that people can do still. And I’m always devastated when I see some fellow permaculture person tearing up a bunch of rural land to build a giant house. Or taking up a huge amount of acreage for just one or two people. Or gentrifying other countries because the cost-of-living is cheaper there.

We’re supposed to be setting the example.

Our personal behaviors do matter even though there is no substitute for systemic activism. I actually find it easier to do one if I’m doing the other also.

Maybe part of our role as degrowth activists and other eco-folk is to help and nurture each other so that we can ease our fears of letting go of harmful systems & behaviors. It can definitely feel very vulnerable to let go of things such as retirement accounts etc. Mutual aid may be a very under-explored area for a lot of us.

PS. A prime example of “the power that comes from beneath” is the retirement accounts of millions of middle-class people. We find it easy to decry the morality of millionaires and billionaires and corporations — but don’t seem to want to notice how we ourselves are propping them up.

Further exploration:

• Go here to read Jensen’s piece in its entirety: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2009/07/08/forget-shorter-showers-why-personal-change-does-not-equal-political-change

Self-Sufficient Backyard – by Ron and Johanna always has a wealth of good tips & pics! I like how they have their rainbarrels lined up neatly along the fence line. (Here is the link to their post that I shared.) As the authors point out, there are many practical reasons for this.

Myself, I too try to keep my rainwater storage neat and tidy, as a kindness to my neighbors as well as myself preferring that human-made stuff has a streamlined look. Neighbors and code enforcement authorities will be more sympathetic towards eco infrastructure projects if we make them neat & aesthetically appealing.

However, unlike many of my fellow “prepper” types, I do not try to hide my rainwater storage. My goal is actually to showcase my rainwater collection setup in order to get more of my neighbors & other people interested in doing it, because we all need to be doing it.

That said, my rainwater tanks are in the backyard, because the best collection spot is there. But (contrary to my mission of public education to promote community resilience), that area is generally invisible from public view. So I showcase my rainwater collection virtually — via social media, my public talks, and my book & blog.

Check the comments under my FB post for a photo of my main rainwater collection zone.

If you’ve read my book, you may remember that one of the categories that offer us opportunity to reduce our eco-footprint is consumption. What we buy and spend.

In the years since I published my book, I have become more aware of how income itself relates to eco-footprint.

Love this summation from fellow Degrowther Alan Kirk — thank you for this Alan:

“… [T]he first paragraph of the OP is quite important. Earning and spending very little into the economy is the backbone of Degrowth; what we earn and spend is a very direct proxy of our impact, i.e. eco-footprint. Earning and spending an average or higher income overwhelms any virtue being signaled by displaying veganism.”

By the way, the original post, by Chris Morasky, is set to public and you can view it here. Titled “Should modern people hunt and gather,” it’s very worthwhile, and sparked a wealth of viewpoints in the comments.

… And the variants such as, “My generation is hopeless! It’ll have to be up to the younger generations to change things.”

Yeah … NO. We do not get to just adopt this attitude and sail off into our happy dotage! We have to push past this mentality! (“We” being older people in the privileged classes.)

So, if you’ve been feeling like this, here are some immediate easy first steps for you:

• Read this article recommended by a friend of mine who’s an environmental sciences professor and public official. I really trust her assessments of things. My friend commented, “I told [a friend] last month that June felt like the long anticipated ‘tipping point.’ I (obsessively) follow several national and international (data-based) agency websites to watch trends in atmospheric chemistry and temperature, oceanic temperature, sea and land ice extent, etc., and my mouth has been agape the past several weeks watching the records break out of the pack of multi-year steady increases. We’re all feeling the effects — heat domes in the south and catastrophic flooding in the north plus wildfires, but the data confirm that this year is truly unprecedented. This excellent article pulls all of those factors into one place to review. Very good article; very bad news.” Here’s the article she’s talking about: “The world just broke a stunning slew of heat records. Why right now?” (Bob Henson; Yale Climate Connections).

• Read this article “What baby boomers can do about climate change” (Bill McKibben; Yale Climate Connections.)

• Check out Third Act, an organization founded by McKibben to empower people over 60 to address climate and racial-justice issues.